His Embrace

Lila can't understand why Abel Gray has picked her.
Lila is innocent and pure, and Abel is...unknown.
But Abel has his eyes on her, and they're not coming off any time soon.
And the moment Lila gives into Abel is the moment that she'll discover the dark secrets that he's withheld for centuries, secrets that, once known, can't be escaped.

8. Speak

Lila was exhausted, and yet, as she laid down in her bed, she found she could not sleep. Her mind was busy with thoughts of Abel, and what he could be doing. Who he could be with at that very moment. Was he with that Mindy girl? Why did she care? She shut her lids tight and curled the blanket around her body, trying to find sleep. Time stretched on. ~ “Lila, get up. You have a visitor. And it’s a boy!” Her mother’s excited voice woke her from her dream, and she started in her bed, quickly glancing at the clock. “Jesus Mom, you can’t wake me at a decent hour?” “Didn’t you hear me? I said--” “I know what you said. Give me time to get up.” She shoved the covers off of herself. “Tell whoever it is to wait a minute,” she said absently, pushing herself off the bed and in front of her mirror. “Ugh,” she groaned. “Honestly, couldn’t they have picked a later hour to visit? I look like such a mess. I barely got any sleep!” “Will you stop complaining and hurry up? It’s rude to keep people waiting.” “Abel can wait,” she mumbled sourly, pulling a brush through her hair. But once she got made her way into the living room, she saw that it was not Abel at all. It was Lila’s ex-boyfriend. Chris shuffled his feet, a bouquet of beautiful red roses in the hand that he was measly trying to hide behind his back. “Hey Lila.” She blinked a couple of times. “Hey Chris. How have you been?” She asked out of courtesy. She hadn’t spoken to Chris since before she met Abel. It seemed like forever ago. “I’m good. How are you?” “Just fine.” She gestured at the couch. “Do you wanna sit down?” “Sure...” The air felt wrong, and Lila tried several times to clear her throat. Was she panicking? She thought back to her relationship with Chris, which had lasted a much too long five months. The truth was, Lila had only dated him because it was the right thing to do. Chris was attractive, their parents were close friends with each other, and Lila’s friends completely approved. Chris was just as popular as Lila was. But Lila hadn’t felt the same about Chris as he had about her. It wasn’t that he was a bad guy. When Lila was around him, she just felt like this was the beginning of the end. If she had stayed with Chris, she eventually would’ve married him. He would’ve gotten an office job and they would’ve had two beautiful children. Lila would have stayed at home to take care of them, and soon she’d find that when it was her time to go, there would be nothing others would remember her by. Her life would have been all too normal. And so she had dumped him. “Lila?” She snapped out of her daze. “Did you hear me?” She took a deep breath. It was hard not to drown in her own thoughts around Chris. “No. Repeat again?” “I asked if you would go to the Spring Formal with me.” “There’s someone else,” Lila interjected quickly. She wasn’t sure why’d she said it. It wasn’t even true. Chris called her bluff. “Oh really? What’s his name?” “Abel.” Lila felt at that very moment as if she should have a personal reminder to put her foot in her mouth. But even more so, she was irritated that Abel’s name had come the easiest to her. They didn’t have anything more than a friendship, at least on Lila’s end. Perhaps it was because Abel was clearly interested? She tried to clear her head again. “You mean that weird kid in our grade? That kid is a total whack job. What are you doing with him anyways? Everyone is worried about you.” She clenched her fists. “Well maybe everyone should mind their own business.” She stood abruptly. “I think you should go.” “You’re not honestly picking that freak over you friends, are you? We’ve all known each other since what? Kindergarten? And here you are, ditching all of us for that...loser! Faye was so right about you. You’re not loyal to anybody because you only care about the person that’s giving you the most attention. News flash: he’s only giving you attention because he’s probably planning to kill you.” “This isn’t about Faye Evans or Abel or anybody else! This is you just being mad at me because I don’t want a future with someone like you! You’re like talking to a brick wall. You never support me or my dreams. To you, I’m just your little future trophy wife. Well guess what Chris? I don’t want your life! Get out of my house!” “Alright Lila, but just remember I gave you another chance. Your friends won’t always be so kind.” The door slammed shut as he left. Lila had never felt more confused and alone. ~ A flock of birds flew overhead the lake, and Lila watched as they moved farther North, back from their long Winter trip in the South. She wondered what it felt like to be a bird, to only live on instinct and nature and not have to worry about all the emotional things that now plagued her life. Her relationship with Abel, her friendship with Candice, and her now fragile popularity status all hung in the balance, and she just couldn’t bring herself to decide which was more important. She stuffed her hands in the pockets of her hood and sat down on the damp ground. If Lila had wings, at the moment, she would’ve flown away from it all. And to top it all off, she realized, finals were in a week. It wasn’t as if she really needed to study. Lila was a top student in all of her classes. She hadn’t even studied for midterms, and she’d still passed those. But it was just that much more stress to add to her life. Her mother, who had been working in the garden, came and sat down next to Lila. “Honey...I’m worried about you.” Lila laid her head on her mother’s shoulder. “I know Mom. Me too.” Her mother took her hand. “I know that all this drama right now is just natural...You are getting older, after all. But I just want to let you know that no matter what you decide to do with your life...I’m always going to be here to back you up.” Lila sighed and squeezed her mother’s hand. “Everything is so messed up Mom. My friends think I’m turning into a freak, Candice is getting territorial about our friendship, and Abel...” “Who’s Abel?” “A kid from school...My friends think he’s a loser.” “Is he your friend?” “Yeah.” “Does he judge your other friends?” “No, not really.” “Than who sounds like the truer friend?” She whispered. Lila thought about it. “You’re right mom. Why should I care what everyone else thinks anyways?” “That’s the spirit,” her mother encouraged. “It just kills me to see you so stressed out...” Her mother suddenly clapped her hands together. “So, when do I get to meet this Abel boy?” Lila laughed. “I’m not sure you’re going to agree with him Mom.” “Why ever so not?” “Because, well...I guess he’s not every suburban mother’s cup of tea.” “Now Lila,” her mother chided. “Did I not just get through a whole speech with you about this very subject? Who cares what I think? If Abel is your friend and he makes you happy, than I’m happy. Besides, I once hung around a bad boy myself.” She elbowed Lila in the ribs. “Get out!” Lila giggled. “No, really. His name was Tyler.” She sighed. “He was a nice kid. A little rebellious, I have to admit. And I almost married him too...” “Then what happened?” “Your father came in and swept me off my feet. I have to admit, I still feel a little guilty about it. That boy loved me to the moon and back and I just up and left him. Sometimes I tell myself it’s because I never really loved him, but I know it’s not true. I loved him back. But I knew he could never give me the life I wanted, and your father could. That was really the only difference between them. I loved them both so fiercely, but where Tyler lacked...Your father overwhelmingly exceeded. Some days I wonder if I made the wrong choice. But I’m happy with your father. Plus, he gave me you and your brother. And that’s something I can never regret.” “What happened then? To Tyler?” “He married some farmer’s daughter in Georgia named Andrea. Last I heard, they had three beautiful children and a big home in Florida. I guess I misjudged him.” She shrugged. “Either way, I’m happy with what I have. I wouldn’t trade the life I have now for a million Tylers.” She smiled. “I just cut some roses from the garden. Want to go give them to your brother with me?” “Sure thing Mom.” “It’s been almost a year...I don’t think I can bare to live through this birthday,” her mother said morosely. “It might literally just kill me.” Lila patted her hand. “We’ll live through it together.” ~ Lila kneeled, as she always did, at her brother’s grave. She wasn’t particularly a religious person. And if there were a God, she’d definitely have some questions to ask him. But this was the polite thing to do with her mother in her time of mourning. Her mother interlaced her fingers, and Lila followed suit. “Dear God...Wherever my baby is up in Heaven, please take care of him and let him know I love him. I know you work in mysterious ways God, but...please help my family and I understand those ways so we may be at peace. We thank you, oh God. Amen.” “Amen,” Lila echoed quietly. She had found that hot tears were already slipping down her face, but her mother never said anything about them, as she never did. Crying was the Nevins family way of letting go. And no one wanted to stop you from letting go. Lila turned and retrieved the roses, handing them to her mother. “I grew these for you, my baby,” her mother whispered, placing the bouquet against the gravestone. She started to sob and stood, placing a hand on Lila’s shoulder. “I can’t do this right now. Not with his birthday so close...I’ll be in the car. Take your time.” She leaned forward, placing her other hand on Adam’s grave. “I love you Adam. See you.” She turned on her heel and left Lila and Adam all alone. “Hey Adam,” Lila whispered, wiping her tears. She leaned her head against the cool, marble-like stone of Adam’s grave marker. “I have a lot to tell you. First off, there’s this boy...” And so Lila told him about Abel and Candice and Chris and her finals and everything that had happened in between. And although she was sure he could not hear her, this always made her feel better. In a way, it still felt like he was there with her, sitting with her on her bed like he used to and listening to her every problem. This was still her way of relieving stress. It was almost as if he had never left. When Adam died, it ripped a whole through Lila’s family. Her mother’s side blamed her father, and because it was only natural for Lila’s mother to defend her family, it caused an awkward tension between her parents that would have had no possibility of existing were Adam still alive. Lila find that more often than not, her father was out on some business trip or another, never home. But she didn’t bring that up to Adam. Because if there were any chance he could hear, she knew he’d blame himself, and she didn’t want that. She sighed, getting up to dust off her jeans. “Seeya soon Adam. I love you.” She started walking back to the car, and spotted a figure at the top of the hill, looking out over the scenery. She felt as if this person had been watching her the whole time, and so she turned her back, but as her curiosity got the best of her, she looked again. The figure was gone. But in his place, a small fire was flickering in the grass. *Author's Note* My Movellas isn't working quite right because of my school computer, so if this entry looks a little wacky or different (like not indented or weird font or format), don't be mad at me. At least the story is there. Enjoy. Updates soon. :)